People

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BIG AIRLINE tries running a business jet charter and management subsidiary? In the case of Delta AirElite, what might at first seem like a prescription for disaster turns out to be a near-perfect elixir of airline value blended with the exceptional service and efficiency of private jet travel.

Cliff Robertson told us that he began acting as a way to avoid work. "I learned in third grade that if you volunteer for that stupid class play where they extol the virtues of vegetables and somebody plays the carrot and somebody else plays the bad food, you won't have to stay after school and clean the erasers," he said. "It was a way to avoid stuff you didn't want to do.

A sign in Jack DeBoer's office reads, "Success is seldom permanent. Neither is failure." DeBoer has seen plenty of both in his long career but his spectacular wins have been sufficient to eclipse his losses. Business-minded since childhood, he began selling real estate while still in high school in Kalamazoo, Mich., and has been an entrepreneur ever since.

Arnold Palmer isn't your typical business jet traveler. A curiosity about airplanes-and a fear of flying on early airliners-led him to the pilot's seat in 1956. He was just 27 then, but his aggressive play on the golf course and magnetic personality already were hinting at the greatness to come.

Stephen J. Cannell arrived in a black stretch limousine for our interview at Southern California's Van Nuys Airport, where the novelist and TV show creator, writer and producer keeps his Gulfstream III and Learjet 55. The 68-year-old Cannell is handsome and elegant while also exuding a charm that can put anyone around him instantly at ease.

Remember Victor Kiam-the man who liked Remington electric razors so much he bought the company? Well, you might say VistaJet chairman Thomas Flohr is Kiam's alter ego-he disliked an industry so much that he started a company to try to fix it. The industry in question is business jet charter.

Morgan Freeman began acting in grade school plays at age nine. By the time he was in high school he was on the radio in Memphis. He turned down an acting scholarship to Jackson State University in Mississippi to join the Air Force, but after his military service he began a slow, steady climb to show business prominence, initially as a dancer and later as an actor in touring companies.